An Ikeja Special Offences Court, on Friday, sentenced a 38-year-old barber, Jobi Kayode, to 20 years in prison for defiling his 12-year-old neighbor.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo handed down the sentence after finding Kayode guilty of a charge of defilement preferred against him by the police.
The court held that on the strength of the complainant’s testimony and the medical evidence, Kayode was guilty as charged.
Justice Taiwo lamented that the instances of rape in the society was becoming an epidemic.
“The prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and I hereby convict him on the offence of defilement, as charged.
“The instances of rape have become prevalent in our society and it is almost becoming an epidemic. The defilement of a 12-year-old neighbour, who trusted him as her neighbour, is heinous.
“The defendant is hereby sentenced to 20 years in prison, to be served at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre, with no option of fine. The sentence starts from today, Nov. 8, 2019,” the judge said.
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The complainant whose name was withheld on account of being a minor, was a Junior Secondary School One (JSS1) student, when the incident happened in June 2015.
While testifying during the trial, she told the court that Kayode used to make lewd advances at her and would sometimes show her his manhood whenever she was returning home from school.
While being led in evidence by Mr. F. O. Ligali, the lead prosecuting counsel, she said “I usually close from school at 4 pm. From Mondays to Thursdays and 2 pm. on Fridays.
“Whenever I’m coming back from school, he (defendant) usually makes advances at me and sometimes brings out his penis and shakes it at me,” she said.
She said one day, when she was opening the gate to her compound, the defendant approached her and told her he wanted to see her neighbour in the compound.
She said that immediately he got into the compound, he overpowered her and defiled her.
“He threatened me that if I should tell anyone about what he did to me, he would kill me,” she said.
The defendant repeated the act a second time according to her with a threat to kill her if she told anyone.
The complainant said that she did not tell her parents about the incident but that when a Non-Governmental Organisation came to give sex education in her school, she confided in a member of the team who then informed her teacher.
She said the teacher told her to inform her parents, but out of fear, she did not.
According to her, it was her teacher who later informed her mother about the incident while her mother informed her father who, in turn, reported to the authorities.
Kayode, in his defence, denied defiling his neighbour.
“I had, at no time, visited the complainant’s compound. Their gate was always locked with a padlock,” he said.
The incident took place at the Shangisha area of Lagos.
